Welcome to Q4 And Annual Planning!
A subtle art of juggling all the things all at once and convincing people that you know what you are doing.
This is going to be a quick post this time because if you are working in product you are feeling this deeply now - we are just in the midst of Q4 planning and at the same time trying to think and plan strategically for 2025 (yes, it’s going to be 2025!). While approaches to planning cycles vary across organizations, the chaos complexity of this process is a universal experience.
Just a couple of things to keep yourself in balance:
Power of why: For every slide in your deck, challenge yourself:
Why does this slide exist?
Why is this specific content important?
Why should your audience care?
Distill your message: Can you articulate the core message of your product and plan in a single, compelling sentence? If not, you need to go back and refine.
You got this! Trust your knowledge of the customers/users and problems to solve for them. You know what to do and where the focus should be.
Yana’s 2 cents:
This is my “favorite” time of the year: you’ve just wrapped up H2 OKRs refinement, had your mid-cycle performance check in, taken a deep breath… and here we go again, sprinting to refresh the org strategy while also crafting a compelling plan for your product for the next year. As one of my colleagues put it “we’re building the plane while flying it”. It’s easy to get lost and overwhelmed if you come to this time of year unprepared. Here is what helps me to navigate the insanity of planning:
Start planning for H2 at the end of Q1. No kidding! I outline big rocks for H2 early in the year, so that when planning season arrives, it’s all about validating the relevancy and making adjustments. It’s much easier than starting from scratch
Proactively engage with your manager and leadership. Seek early insights on the org strategy. It’ll give you enough time to think through how your product fits into the broader picture.
Collaborate! Planning is not a solo act. Find time to discuss your plans with cross-functional partners and dependent teams.
It’s obviously not a silver bullet, and honestly, I don’t think one exists. Even within the same company, I’ve never seen a consistent approach to planning from one year to the next. The key is to stay proactive, stay connected, and be adaptable.